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Happenings Around INETA North America (NorAm) |
This month I'd like to share some information about INETA Worldwide. As you may know INETA Worldwide is comprised of five geographical regions including Asia/Pacific, Europe, Latin America, Middle East/Africia, and North America (USA/Canada). In each of these regions there is a counterpart to myself that leads the region.
During the weekend of October 14th/15th we held a meeting of these regional leads in Redmond, WA. In addition to the regional leads several members of the governing bodies of Latin America and North America attended. During the first day of our meetings we discussed the formation of an INETA Worldwide Council. The regional leads have been meeting on a regular basis, sharing ideas and information, yet had not formalized a worldwide governing body. As a result of this meeting the Worldwide Council was formed and by the end of December there will be Bylaws and guidelines for several operational areas. A major aspect of the Worldwide Council will be regular and standardized communications between the INETA regions.
The Worldwide Council will impact our members, user group leaders and individuals, going forward in several ways. First there will be more regular sharing of information between regions such as articles in this newsletter about user groups around the world. Next, we will implement more worldwide programs such as the Community Launch Events. Lastly, it will allow us to share sponsor information and potentially have worldwide or multi-region sponsors.
If you have ideas about how the Worldwide Council could benefit your user group or user groups in general please drop me a note.
Once again we are looking for several volunteers to assist in the Marketing, Sponsorship, and Technology/Web Site areas for for INETA North America. If you have time and are interested please contact our Administrative Director, Nancy Mesquita at
nancy.mesquita@ineta.org.
Chris Pels, President, INETA NorAm chris.pels@ineta.org
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Speakers Bureau |
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The INETA Speaker Bureau had a wonderful year in 2006. We completed more than 250 events including several special academic engagements at well known colleges and universities. For each event, our bureau coordinates speaker selection, user group leader logistics, travel planning, speaker and group expense reimbursements, and evaluation metrics. Our budget of more than $200,000 is carefully planned to maximize regional coverage and speaker utilization. Speaker travel, lodging, meal, and honorarium are covered for each event along with the $3.50 refreshment reimbursement per returned attendee evaluation.
The people making this possible include our paid administrator Nancy Mesquita, user group leaders Bill Wolff (Philadelphia) and David Walker (Tulsa), and speaker advisors Keith Pleas, Ken Getz, and Julie Lerman. We hold bi-weekly meetings to discuss engagement details and plan speaker activities. Thanks to all of the volunteers that make INETA speaker events so popular.
We have a roster of more than 50 renowned speakers. Some of our speakers are in high demand and their time is limited. Others are more available or devoted to community causes. We ask each speaker to perform one or two events a year. Some speakers do as many as ten. Speaker travel and work schedules dictate their availability. If a user group leader requests a specific speaker or date, chances are that we will substitute someone readily available. Speakers are periodically added to our renowned list by a formal process of applications and peer review. We started five years ago with less than 20 members. We did not add any speakers this year since our cast of 50+ can easily cover the number of planned events.
We do try and honor every request that comes our way. Strictly speaking, all requests are logged and prioritized in the order received. Since we book well in advance, it helps if each user group submits requests six or more months in advance. We have some simple policies that help spread our speaking resources to all INETA member groups. Each group can submit up to three requests per calendar year, but only one per quarter. We also ask that you never schedule more than two consecutive quarters. The best plan is to schedule your INETA speakers every four months. There are instances where events are rescheduled or postponed and Nancy will work with you to accommodate special needs.
We are currently experiencing increased demand for our speakers and bookings are sold out though March 2007. If you have a request on file, expect those to be filled for the months requested. New request s should specify dates in the latter three quarters of 2007. The Speaker Bureau page on the web site (top nav Resources, Speaker Bureau) lists speaker bios and topics.
There are policies and procedures on the left band of this page. Be sure to check this area for information on available booking dates. One more tip: you must be logged in to the site to see the link to the official Speaker Request form. When your form is submitted, you will receive a confirmation email from Nancy and the coordination process begins. It can take several weeks to confirm a speaker and date. Your patience and cooperation are always welcome.
The user group leader is responsible for event publicity, site logistics, refreshments, and most important, evaluations. These should be returned to our PO Box immediately following the event. All evaluations are tallied and reported to the speakers, INETA volunteers, and Microsoft. Event expense reimbursements are typically processed within two weeks.
We have some new INETA branded slide decks that leaders and speakers can use at their meetings. Look for these in your next event confirmation package. Make sure the new INETA logo is displayed on any web page or email invitation posted for your event.
We value your feedback and urge you to comment to sbcomm@ineta.org.
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It Was Air Force VS Navy |
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It was Air Force vs. Navy, Saturday October 7 -- one of the biggest rivalries in college football. The Commander in Chief Trophy was at stake. Navy has won three consecutive Commander in Chief Trophies, Air Force wants it back.
No wait, this isn't about the Air Force game or is it? All of the hotel rooms on the north end of Colorado Springs were full of die hard football fans. Out of town speakers had no place to stay. Scott Golightly flew in from Salt Lake City and with no where to go, claimed the couch. Ani Babaian, Microsoft Developer Evangelist, drove from Denver and snagged the guest room. David Yack and Julie Yack, well it was their house. Everyone was on their laptops sending instant messages across the living room to each other.
The day of SoCoCodeCamp V1.0 was perfect South Colorado fall weather. We were ready to go bright and early for a day full of great speakers. We had to run 4 concurrent sessions all day long to accommodate all the great content.
Our sponsors were very supportive of the goal for the day - "all code, no fluff." They had a very quiet, but very necessary presence. Robert Half, Statera, Timpani Software and Colorado Technology Consultants all made great sponsor contributions to help keep our attendees in sessions. This worked especially well with the game-day traffic by eliminating the need for anyone to wander around in search of food.
With all that said, there were still lessons to be learned. We encouraged our presenters to determine the length of time for their topics. With the large response and not wanting to turn anyone away we staggered our sessions. The staggered sessions made it tough for some to go to all the sessions they wanted. When we do it again (and we will), we will have to be more restrictive with the session times to make a better experience for our attendees.
We also learned to pay more attention to what was going on around us that day. With the Air Force vs. Navy game we had traffic issues that we would never have predicted for a Saturday in Colorado Springs. One of our last speakers of the day, Joe Mayo, walked in literally with 5 seconds to spare because of the game-day traffic.
What did work out great? Our location. We got a great price for the perfect space, a local high school. We had classrooms for breakout sessions. We had the large cafeteria for our keynote. We had their "forum" for our mix and mingle lunch and all day snack table.
What else was great? The learning! One of the biggest "complaints" heard was that there was too much good content available and that it was nearly impossible to choose which sessions to attend.
All in all, a great code camp. It was not even a week after the event before the requests started coming in for the next one. Oh, and the Air Force vs. Navy game – we forgot about it, just too busy coding...
Julie Yack
South Colorado DotNet User Group
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Kathleen Dollard presents her keynote session at SoCoCodeCamp V1.0, "Tools And Techniques To Improve Your .NET Development." Kathleen was a great start to the day, engaging the audience with her great knowledge and approachable attitude.
Photo by Ani Babaian,
Microsoft Developer Evangelist,
West Region, US.
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INETA Live! Series Continues |
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INETA Live! Monthly webcasts for and by user group leaders and members. Sharing technical and administrative expertise through live webcasts and downloadable files. Mark your calendar for the second Wednesday of each month, 12:30 PST
Seeking Speakers and Topics
The INETA monthly webcasts are an excellent opportunity to expand your reach - you'll be sharing your experience and expertise with fellow developers across North America. Pick you topic -- the spectrum goes from discussing ways to improve User Group activities to sharing technical techniques. Concerned about being a novice? Presentation teams not only split the prep, but they are also great for sharing the presentation and responding to questions.
Webcasts are typically one hour presentations based on a PowerPoint show. It is easy to include demonstrations of whatever applications you are using. Some of the topics that we have enjoyed include discussions about User Group websites and finding sponsors and using SharePoint Services. What topic would YOU like to share - or, if you are ready to present, please tell us what you would like to learn more about.
Please encourage your members to volunteer - and have them email Teresa Hennig, our INETA webcast host.
Please visit http://live.ineta.org to read about the current topic, register for the webcasts and to download archived presentations. INETA is all about leveraging and sharing knowledge, so please invite your members to join us.
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Speaker's Corner with Sahil Malik |
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Julia Lerman
recently spent time with INETA Speaker Sahil Malik in Bulgaria together to present at the DevReach conference along with a number of other speakers, many who are also on the INETA speaker bureau.
How do you keep up with this changing pace in technology?
I don't. I gave up on that a long time back. I realized that since the world was creating information faster than I could consume it, it is a fruitless endeavor to try and be good at everything. Instead, I work on my learning and unlearning ability. Why "learning and unlearning ability?" In a world which changes so fast, today's axioms may be tomorrow's faux pas. It is important to learn new ways of doing things as fast as you can, and being open to change. Part of being open to change is the ability to unlearn what you know and be willing to admit and accept a newer better way of things as it comes around. At the same time, you don't quite "unlearn" everything. What I learnt in writing DOS TSRs was still useful in writing Win32 programs that used WM_TIMER. What I learnt in Win32 GDI programming will be useful in WPF. What I learnt in WCF will be useful in writing the next self learning neural network with a built in human happiness engine.
What do you do for fun?
I like music & photography. I listen to all kinds of music. I think I have a taste for art - it doesn't matter what form it comes in. It is important, and good to be able to unplug, turn on some music, and watch the snow fall out the window with a warm cup of tea. Of course, then shortly thereafter return to my computer with my next big idea.
What do you find so interesting about speaking at INETA?
I have begun to realize that every user group and every user group attendee is different. I have had people come up after a talk and discuss how my talk was too advanced or too basic at the end of each talk. The funny thing is that the attendees are both referring to the same talk within a space of 5 minutes of each other. I have realized that it is important to be humble and understand that there is no absolute best. I have begun to appreciate that the audience is heterogeneous, and including the speaker there are people more advanced than others. I find it very interesting to embrace this challenge and be comfortable in admitting about things I don't know. I have found it very important that I as a speaker am there to learn, just as everyone else is.
What do you find exciting about the current technology horizon.
I work in the Microsoft world. I am happy to see that companies such as Google and Apple are doing amazing stuff forcing Microsoft to wake up to the challenge. Kudos to things done right, Google is a pretty good search engine, Gmail is simply amazing, and iPod is a rather well done product. At the same time, I am very excited to see that Microsoft is rising up to the challenge and has produced live search, live mail and the Zune player. Who survives or wins, time will tell. What I do know is that we as techies are in for an interesting time ahead of us. I am happy to see that the innovation we saw in the .COM era has begun to resurface. This time only in a much more mature model with much stronger backing. I am truly excited.
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Upcoming INETA Speakers Bureau Events |
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New INETA North America Staff Person |
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Recently we added Stacey McKown a second paid staff person to work with Nancy Mesquita. Stacy lives in North Carolina and will be an integral part of our INETA team. She has an accounting background and will help with the important task of bookkeeping and working with our Treasurer Michael Wiley on tax returns and other financial matters.
In addition, Stacey has taken on the role of Project Manager for our Marketing, Membership, and Sponsorship teams. In that capacity she will work with the head of each team to manage the projects, tasks, and resources. Nancy has taken on a similar role for Community Activities, Speakers, and Technology. The addition of Stacey should help us be both more organized and productive in benefiting our members. Please join me in welcoming Stacey to our team!
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From the Editor |
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One of the cool things about being an INETA volunteer is being involved in all kinds of community activities. Everything from helping out
in a smaller user group to helping plan next year's TechEd. Would you like to help out some user groups in your area? Would you like to
try your hand at making a presentation at a user group? Email us today and find out how you can get involved. Or better yet, email your
local user group leader directly and ask them what you can do for their group right now! (Tell 'em INETA sent you.)
We're starting to use the new SharePoint as a basis for our internal communication and collaboration here at INETA. What a cool tool. We're also
talking about helping local user groups form new SharePoint groups. Are you interested in that? Do you know of an existing SharePoint group that's
not currently involved in INETA? Let us know because we'd love to get them plugged in to some of the new things we are doing.
This is that special time of year and the INETA team wants to wish you and your family a very happy holiday season. (I'm open to receiving a
Zune as a Christmas present if you're curious...)
Scott Spradlin, Vice President - Marketing, INETA NorAm scott.spradlin@ineta.org
Archived newsletters are available on the INETA website at
www.ineta.org/newsletters.
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President's Note
